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��BIRTHPLACE OF GEN. STARK.
��home of that name in Ireland, they hav- ing come from Scotland through Ireland to America. The settlers, previous to their incorporation as a town in 1722, had organized for mutual government and protection, and this organization was called Nuffield, but it was never a town for any purpose of taxation or for hold- ing town meetings.
Londonderry as incorporated in 1722 was a very much larger tract of land than is now covered by its territory. In 1751 Derryfield was chartered, being formed from parts of Londonderry and Chester and the whole of Hurrytown. In 1810 the name Derryfield was changed to Manchester, and in 1846 Manchester became a city, parts of other towns being added to it afterward. In 1742 the par- ish of Windham was incorporated by the Provincial Assembly from the territory of Londonderry, a part of which wss af- terward annexed to Salem, and the rest became the present town of Windham. A part of Hudson once belonged to Lon- donderry, though it is not intended here to narrate in full the partition of Lon- donderry. It is enough to add that in 1827 Derry was set off and became a town by itself, and that it was in what is now Derry that Stark was born. Not unfairly, though, can all the places named, and possibly more, claim some- thing of the prestige which properly at- taches to the birthplace of so distin- guished a character as General Stark proved to be. Mr. Everett needs not to be corrected when he says of the services of General Stark that they were of the highest character and of an importance not easily surpassed, those of Washing- ton excepted, u by any achievements of any other leader in the army of the Rev- olution."
A visit to Derry was recently made by the writer, a resident of Bennington, Vermont, and, of course, interested in everything connected with the hero of the battle of Bennington, a short ac- count of which may interest the readers of The Journal. Through the kindness of the corresponding secretary of the old Londonderry Historical and Anti- quarian Society — one of those modest
��and useful societies which are doing so much to preserve our early history — he found himself on one of these bright au- tumnal mornings, in company with a de- scendant of Stark, residing in Manches- ter, at the Windham station of the Man- chester and Lawrence railroad, ready to take conveyance to the southwestern part of Derry near that section of the town known as " Derry Dock." The historic spot of Stark's birthplace is on the farm of Mr. John H. Low, and is about two miles from the Windham depot on a road running east of and parallel, or nearly so, with the Londonderry turnpike. It is a short distance, say one quarter of a mile, north of the crossing of the Nashua & Rochester Railroad, on the left side of the road, in a wooded nook, a secluded and romantic spot, facing extensive meadows — probably the very meadows where a marauding party from Massa- chusetts were put to route by the early settlers, headed by their minister, a true McGregor, who did no discredit on this occasion to the fighting [qualities of the noted Highland chieftain of whose coun- try he was and whose name he bore.
As these meadows were a part of the " one thousand acre wildernesse farme" which Massachusetts granted to her Gov. Leverett, inhabitants of Massachusetts claimed and exercised the right to mow them. Hence the dispute, which with the Scotch-Irish refugees in possession, could result in but one way.
A ravine runs up from the road on each side of the place where the house stood. The site itself is plainly marked by the cellar walls, which are almost in- tact. A pine tree a foot and a half in di- ameter grows up out of the cellar ; a large elm spreads its graceful branches just behind, and the remnants of an apple orchard are scattered about among the frequent chestnut, walnut and other trees which more than half cover the place. The house evidently faced not to the road but to the south. In what was its front is a large rock on which, after a survey of the spot and its surroundings, we partook of a lunch provided for us by our host. With a wise forethought our antiquarian caterer had appropriately
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